4" Enrolled Spiny Drotops Armatus Trilobite - Mrakib, Morocco

Enrolled Spiny Drotops Armatus Trilobite - Mrakib, Morocco #291839

This is a super-spiny, enrolled Drotops armatus trilobite which would be about 4" long if outstretched. It comes from the Bou Dib Formation near Mrakib, Morocco. It has been expertly prepared to remove the hard, surrounding limestone and leave it perched on a pedestal of rock. It's a quite elegant looking specimen with nice eye facets. The spines are original, though about 1/3 or them have some repair work near the base.

Trilobites were a very diverse group of extinct marine arthropods. They first appeared in the fossil record in the Early Cambrian (521 million years ago) and went extinct during the Permian mass extinction (250 million years ago). They were one of the most successful of the early animals on our planet: over 25,000 species have been described, filling nearly every evolutionary niche. Due in large part to their hard exoskeletons (shells), they left an excellent fossil record.

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